{"id":2491,"date":"2017-11-07T08:00:04","date_gmt":"2017-11-07T08:00:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/braindevs.net\/blog\/blog\/?p=2491"},"modified":"2017-12-07T03:02:36","modified_gmt":"2017-12-07T03:02:36","slug":"cell-phones-and-boundaries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/cell-phones-and-boundaries\/","title":{"rendered":"Cell Phones and Boundaries"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"AdobeStock_151049690_Credit\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Regular readers of this blog\u2014and, people who have even a glimpse of common sense\u2014already know that mobile devices distract college students during lectures.<\/p>\n

(If you\u2019d like a review of research on this topic, you can check out The Distracted Mind<\/em> by Gazzaley and Rosen.)<\/p>\n

You can picture college students now: squinting at small screens, thumbing away at tiny keyboards, chuckling at oddly inappropriate moments of the lecture.<\/p>\n

How can there possibly be any reason to research this question further?<\/p>\n

One Reason to Research this Question Further<\/strong><\/p>\n

When scientists discover any kind of principal, they quickly start investigating the specific conditions under which it applies.<\/p>\n

For example: we know that retrieval practice<\/strong> is\u2014generally speaking\u2014 a great way to review. But, does it work equally well for 8-year-olds, 18-year-olds, and 80-year-olds?<\/p>\n

We know that a growth mindset<\/strong>\u2014generally speaking\u2014enhances motivation. But, does it work for athletic<\/em> as well as academic<\/em> endeavors?<\/p>\n

We know that\u2014generally speaking\u2014stress<\/strong> is bad for learning. But: how much stress is bad? Is there a low level of stress that might be good? Or, are there some tasks that benefit from high levels of stress during learning?<\/p>\n

Researchers call these boundary conditions<\/strong>: a finding applies under these<\/em> particular circumstances, but not<\/strong> those<\/em> particular circumstances.<\/p>\n

And so, we might want to investigate use of mobile devices during lectures even further to discover their boundary conditions. Are there ages<\/u> at which cell-phone use matters less? Are there class lengths<\/u> where it matters more? Are there personality types<\/u> who learn more while surfing away?<\/p>\n

A Surprising Answer<\/strong><\/p>\n

A group of researchers in South Africa wanted to find boundary conditions for the harm done by mobile devices in college lectures. In particular, they wanted to know: do cell phones lower grades equally in all disciplines<\/u>?<\/p>\n

Perhaps history students are more distractible than classics students. Or, perhaps physics concepts can be obscured more readily than biology concepts.<\/p>\n

By surveying students and by doing a meta-analysis of other studies, le Roux & Parry\u00a0found<\/a> that mobile phones did less harm in\u00a0Engineering<\/strong> classes than in\u00a0Arts and Social Sciences\u00a0<\/strong>classes.<\/p>\n

So: cell phones distract students during lectures, but they don\u2019t distract students equally during lectures on different topics.<\/p>\n

Teaching Implications<\/strong><\/p>\n

I, for one, wouldn\u2019t encourage my\u00a0Engineering students to break out the iPads during class. Those devices might not be as distracting as in other classes, but they\u2019re still distracting.<\/p>\n

(And: they\u2019re probably distracting to other students<\/em>: see Faria Sana\u2019s research<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s what I would do: follow le Roux\u2019s example and look for boundary conditions<\/em>.<\/p>\n

If a speaker says \u201cworking memory limits preclude students from remembering more than 2 instructions,\u201d ask if that rule applies to your 11th<\/sup> graders. Ask if it applies to written instructions as well as verbal instructions. Ask if it applies to instructions given in a foreign language class. Ask if it applies to instructions that students must follow over the next 30 minutes.<\/p>\n

Look for boundary conditions.<\/p>\n

(By the way, the answer to those questions are:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Because WM capacity increases with age, most 11th<\/sup> graders can recall more than 2 instructions.<\/li>\n
  2. Written instructions don\u2019t take up much working memory capacity at all.<\/li>\n
  3. Because foreign language instruction is VERY WM taxing, students might struggle to remember even a small number of instructions.<\/li>\n
  4. The longer students have to remember instructions, the harder that effort becomes. That\u2019s why you make shopping lists: it\u2019s hard to remember what you want at the store when it\u2019s 30 minutes away.)<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    In Sum\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

    Cognitive sciences offers teachers general principles\u2014and those principles can be mightily helpful. (For instance: retrieval practice DOES work well for 8, 18, and 80 year olds.)<\/p>\n

    But, most of those principles do have important boundaries. Your students, your class size, your discipline, your age group, your personality\u2014all these variables just might be outside those boundaries<\/em>.<\/p>\n

    And so: be curious about the general principles. And, be equally curious about their boundaries.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Regular readers of this blog\u2014and, people who have even a glimpse of common sense\u2014already know that mobile devices distract college students during lectures. (If you\u2019d like a review of research on this topic, you can check out The Distracted Mind by Gazzaley and Rosen.) You can picture college students now: squinting at small screens, thumbing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":2504,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[27,29],"class_list":["post-2491","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lb-blog","tag-boundary-conditions","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2491","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2491"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2491\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2505,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2491\/revisions\/2505"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2504"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2491"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2491"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2491"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}